Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2013, Article ID 859083, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/859083 Research Article Evaluation of Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Citrus latifolia Tanaka Essential Oil and Limonene in Experimental Mouse Models Raquel Kummer, 1 Fernanda Carolina Fachini-Queiroz, 1 Camila Fernanda Estevão-Silva, 1 Renata Grespan, 1 Expedito Leite Silva, 2 Ciomar Aparecida Bersani-Amado, 1 and Roberto Kenji Nakamura Cuman 1 1 Department of Pharmacology and Terapeutics, State University of Maring´ a, 870020-900 Maring´ a, PR, Brazil 2 Department of Chemistry, State University of Maring´ a, 870020-900 Maring´ a, PR, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Raquel Kummer; raquelkummer@hotmail.com Received 4 February 2013; Revised 18 April 2013; Accepted 23 April 2013 Academic Editor: Jang-Hern Lee Copyright © 2013 Raquel Kummer et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Te genus Citrus (Rutaceae) includes several species of plants that produce some of the most cultivated fruits in the world, providing an appreciable content of essential oil. In folk medicine, they are used as a cholagogue, antipyretic, anti-infammatory, sedative, and antitoxic efects. Lemon essential oil has been used since ancient times for its antiseptic, carminative, diuretic, and eupeptic efects. In this study, we investigated the anti-infammatory activity of Citrus latifolia Tanaka essential oil (CLEO) and its main constituent LIM. In the cell viability assay, CLEO and LIM (3, 10, 30, and 90 g/mL) had low cytotoxicity. In zymosan-induced peritonitis, LIM (500 mg/kg) decreased the infltration of peritoneal exudate leukocytes and decreased the number of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. In vitro chemotaxis revealed that CLEO and LIM (1, 3, and 10 g/mL) promoted a signifcant reduction of neutrophil migration toward fMLP and LTB 4 . LIM (500 mg/kg) also reduced TNF- levels but did not alter IL-10 levels in the peritoneal exudate. In conclusion, this study showed that LIM isolated from CLEO had potential anti-infammatory efects, likely by inhibiting proinfammatory mediators present in infammatory exudate and leukocyte chemotaxis. 1. Introduction Te genus Citrus (Rutaceae) includes several species of plants that produce some of the most cultivated fruits in the world, including oranges and lemons, which have an appreciable content of essential oil. In folk medicine, they are used as a cholagogue and for their digestive, tonic, antipyretic, anti- infammatory, sedative, and antitoxic efects [1–4]. Essential oils of plants from the genus Citrus have monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes as their constituents [5, 6]. Te litera- ture indicates the presence of 50 or more diferent com- pounds obtained from citrus peel, whereas limonene (LIM) is the main compound [3, 7]. Citrus latifolia Tanaka is popularly known as Tahiti lime and grows well in tropical regions [8]. Lemon essential oil is a complex mixture of LIM, - terpinene, citral, linalool, and -caryophyllene, among others [9]. Since ancient times, it has been used for its antiseptic, carminative, diuretic, and eupeptic efects [2]. Some of its compounds, including -caryophyllene, LIM, and linalool, have anti-infammatory efects [10–12]; -pinene and - pinene inhibit the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), suggesting an antioxidant efect [3], and recent reports showed that - pinene exerts an antispasmodic efect on the rat ileum and provokes antinociceptive actions [13]. LIM is one of the most common terpenes in nature and has been used as a favoring agent in common food items, such as fruit juices, sof drinks, and ice cream, and in the cosmetics and pesticide industries [11, 14]. LIM has been